I confess that since November I've been holding my breath, watching
the clock for how long Tea Party newcomers could hold out against the
entrenched Republican elite on Capitol Hill. Collapse was inevitable,
however I admit to feeling bitterly surprised at how rapidly they have
thrown in the towel.

For the record, most of the Tea Party quit their principles of
liberty on February 14, 2011--20 days into the new Congress--when Tea
Party leaders abruptly abandoned their opposition to the Patriot Act and
voted to extend intrusive domestic surveillance, wire tapping and
warrantless searches of American citizens. In so doing, they exposed
the fraud of their soaring campaign promises to defend the liberty of
ordinary Americans, and fight government intrusions on freedom. All
those wide eyed speeches that flowed with such thrilling devotions, all
of it proved to be self-aggrandizing lies.

The Tea Party didn't even put up a fight. Briefly they rejected a
sneak attack to renew three surveillance clauses of the Patriot Act on a
suspension vote. That filled my heart with hope. One push from the
Republican elite, however and they went down with a loud thud.

My disappointment is particularly acute. Rather notoriously, I am
distinguished as the second non-Arab American to face indictment on the
Patriot Act, after Jose Padilla .

My status was pretty close to an enemy non-combatant. One would
presume that I must have joined some terrorist conspiracy? Or engaged in
some brutal act of sedition, such as stock piling weapons and munitions
to overthrow those crooks in Congress?

You would be wrong. I got indicted for protesting the War in Iraq . My
crime was delivering a warm-hearted letter to my second cousin White
House Chief of Staff , Andy Card, which correctly outlined the
consequences of War. Suspiciously, I had been one of the very few Assets
covering the Iraqi Embassy at the United Nations for seven years. Thus,
I was personally acquainted with the truth about Pre-War Intelligence,
which differs remarkably from the story invented by GOP leaders on
Capitol Hill.

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More dangerously still, my team gave advance warnings about the 9/11
attack and solicited Iraq's cooperation after 9/11. In August 2001, at
the urging of my CIA handler, I phoned Attorney General John Ashcroft 's
private staff and the Office of Counter-Terrorism to ask for an
"emergency broadcast alert" across all federal agencies, seeking any
fragment of intelligence on airplane hijackings. My warning cited the
World Trade Center as the identified target. Highly credible
independent sources have confirmed that in August, 2001 I described the
strike on the World Trade Center as "imminent," with the potential for
"mass casualties, possibly using a miniature thermonuclear device."

Thanks to the Patriot Act, Americans have zero knowledge of those
truths, though the 9/11 Community has zoomed close for years. Republican
leaders invoked the Patriot Act to take me down 30 days after I
approached the offices of Senator John McCain and Trent Lott , requesting
to testify about Iraq's cooperation with the 9/11 investigation and a
comprehensive peace framework that would have achieved every U.S. and
British objective without firing a shot. Ironically, because of the
Patriot Act, my conversations with Senator Trent Lott's staff got
captured on wire taps, proving my story.

You see, contrary to rhetoric on Capitol Hill, the Patriot Act is
first and foremost a weapon to bludgeon whistleblowers and political
dissidents. Indeed, it has been singularly crafted for that purpose.

The American people are not nearly as frightened as they should be.
Many Americans expect the Patriot Act to limit its surveillance to
overseas communications. Yet while I was under indictment, Maryland
State Police invoked the Patriot Act to wire tap activists tied to the
Chesapeake Climate Action Network , an environmental group dedicated to
wind power, solar energy and recycling. The DC Anti-War Network was
targeted as a "white supremacist group." Amnesty International and
anti-death penalty activists got targeted for alleged " civil rights
violations ."

All of these are American activists engaged in lawful disputes of
government policy. All of them got victimized by the surveillance
techniques approved by Tea Party leaders , because they pursued a policy
agenda that contradicted current government policies. The Tea Party
swore to defend the freedom of independent thinking in Congressional
campaigns. One presumes those promises are now forgotten until the next
election.

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I cannot forget. I cannot forget how I was subjected to secret
charges, secret evidence and secret grand jury testimony that denied my
right to face my accusers or their accusations in open court, throughout
five years of indictment. I cannot forget my imprisonment on a Texas
military base for a year without a trial or evidentiary hearing.

I cannot forget how the FBI , the US Attorneys Office, the Bureau of
Prisons and the main Justice office in Washington --- independently and
collectively verified my story--- then falsified testimony to Chief
Justice Michael Mukasey , denying our 9/11 warnings and my long-time
status as a U.S. intelligence Asset, though my witnesses had
aggressively confronted them. Apparently the Patriot Act allows the
Justice Department to withhold corroborating evidence and testimony from
the Court, if it is deemed "classified."

I cannot forget threats of forcible drugging and indefinite detention
up to 10 years, until I could be "cured" of believing what everybody
wanted to deny-- because it was damn inconvenient to politicians in
Washington anxious to hold onto power.

Susan Lindauer was a U.S. Asset and one of the very first non-Arab Americans indicted on the Patriot Act, accused of acting as an "Iraqi Agent" for opposing the War. She was imprisoned on Carswell Air Force Base for a year without a trial, while the (more...)